Lotti, Antonio (c. 1667–1740)

Italian composer. His operas and church music spanned the late baroque and early classical styles.

He was a pupil of his father and of Giovanni Legrenzi in Venice. Appointed singer at St Mark's in 1687, he rose to become second organist in 1692, first organist in 1704, and finally maestro di cappella in 1736. He produced his first opera, Il trionfo dell' innocenza, in Venice in 1692 (Giustino, 1683, commonly ascribed to him, is by Legrenzi). He visited Dresden, Germany, 1717–19 as an opera composer, but after his return to Italy devoted himself entirely to church music.

Works Opera Porsenna (1713), Irene Augusta (1713), Polidoro (1714), Alessandro Severo, Constantino (for Vienna, 1716, with Fux and Caldara), Giove in Argo (1717), Ascanio, Teofane (1719), and others.

Other oratorios Il voto crudele (1712), L'umilità coronata in Esther (1714), Gioa, Giuditta; Masses, Requiems, Misereres, motets, and other church music.